Thoughts on politics and life from a liberal perspective

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Political Twitterers!

I have spent some time today trying to find more political people on Twitter to follow. I have been actively using it for a few weeks now and it is great for keeping in touch in pretty much real time with what is going on with like minded people.


The problem I have found is in trying to find politically active/interested Twitterers to follow. I cannot find a central repository of this information. There is a Lib Dem Tweets section on Lib Dem Blogs which is very useful and I have joined this (and mined it for potential people to follow!) but that is only a subset of Lib Dem Twitterers and doesn't cover any of the other parties, or non-affiliated people.

I am already following some non-Lib Dems by trial and error but I would prefer a better way of finding them so, I thought I would start this thread as a place where Twitter users who fit the profile above (i.e. interested in and Tweeting about politics) could add their details and handle (in the comments below). I will be happy to follow you and please feel free to follow me. Also, perhaps others who read this thread and are politically inclined might follow you too.

I am @MarkReckons and you can follow me here: http://twitter.com/MarkReckons


UPDATE: Some people seem to think this is a good idea and there are a few handles appearing already. Please follow them if you are a political Twitterer! To spread this further, perhaps Twitterers could RT this tweet I did earlier:

RT @MarkReckons If you are into #UKPolitics, please add yr Twitter handle to the comments here for increased followage: http://twi.cc/49AI

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

@KlarkeKent

Fausty said...

Good idea, Mark. I tend to find people to follow by visiting the blogs of people who post on other bloggers' sites.

@FaustiesBlog

Mark Thompson said...

Hi Fausty. Yes, I have done that too in the past but I thought this could maybe be a bit more of a central repository.

Thanks for the follow and just followed you back BTW!

Kev said...

Good idea, Mark

@KevinMcP
and http://www.oddpolitics.com

Jennie Rigg said...

Miss_s_b (and I am offended that you weren't already following me :P)

Mark Thompson said...

Aha! But I have been following you for about 2 weeks! Thus I win!

I on the other hand am offended that you have not been following me!

And, I am also offended that you have not re-tweeted my tweet!

:P

Ben Gray said...

@benjaminfgray

I'll send round a RT for you.

Tory Politico said...

Mark there are a couple of places you can go for politicsl twitters. First there is House of twits http://www.houseoftwits.co.uk/ which aggrigates a large number of political tweets. Then there is Tweetminster http://tweetminsyer.com which does the same thing, but for MPs and PPC.

Hope this helps.

Tory Pilitico
http://tory-politico.com

Tom said...

as previously mentioned tweetminister exists and is about to launch an app that will automatically track all tweets that relate to UK politics.

Harry Hayfield said...

HarryHayfield (and on Local Election Day I will be tweeting LIVE results from Warwickshire, Somerset and Lancashire)

Unknown said...

I was honoured when you started following me the other day:-). I mean, it's good when the Lib Dem Blogger of the Moment noticees you exist:-).

For everyone else I'm www.twitter.com/caronmlindsay and blog at http://carons-musings.blogspot.com

pTracker said...

Mark, I feel your pain. We at pTracker have been compiling a list of American political twitterers for our iPhone app. It's not easy! But we also feel like you do, that it's important to have a single place to keep up with what our elected officials are saying.

If you happen to be interested in US political tweets, check out politicoTracker Twitter Edition on the App store.

http://politicoTracker.com/te

http://twitter.com/_pTracker

I'm heading over to Twitter now to RT your plea...

Cllr Tweeps said...

You can find lots of councillors who are on Twitter at http://cllrtweeps.com - Lib Dems vie for the lead for the most councillor registered.

You can see all the Lib Dem twitterers on a single page at http://cllrtweeps.com/cllrs/parties/libdem/

asquith said...

Speaking for myself, I don't like being added by people with whom I haven't previously had contact. It might be best for you to go down the traditional route of making friends by commenting relentlessly. Of course, this is also a time-honoured way of getting attention for a new blog.

You can then add people on twitter/facebook once you've interacted with them. Without this preliminary, you might be rejected by some, especially if you have a skewed following/followers ratio.

Though funnily enough, I accepted your addition of me! I have been looking into this blog- liking it. But I haven't commented yet. I've had nothing to say until now :)

Unknown said...

@dnotice

Thank you. :-)

Paul Youlten said...

Great idea Mark.

I manage the twtwfy account on twitter and I am particularly keen to track prospective parliamentary candidates in the UK... if anyone sees one lurking please point them in my direction.

Constantly Furious said...

Constantly Furious is at http://twitter.com/ConstantFuryI know we already follow each other, Mark, but thought some other people might like some gratuitous bad language in their lives.

(also on Facebook - they wouldn't allow "Constantly Furious", so feel free to Friend "Constance-Lee Fury-House")

Anonymous said...

Have you tried other aggregators/directories? e.g. WeFollow, or Twibes (try http://www.twibes.com/category/politics and http://www.twibes.com/group/libdems for starters)...

Another suggestion: have a look for people using #pmqs or #bbcqt, which might capture a broader range of people than just self-identifying politicos.

Ben Archibald said...

Hi there Mark: I'm Ben Archibald @benarchibald and I am a tory satire blogger (former Constit. Sec.) and twitterererer. I'd be very happy to be associated with this project.

my blog is at http://nabidana.com

marksany said...

Hi Mark, good idea. I'm marksany on twitter and blogspot.com

diana smith said...

@mulberrybush

diana smith Stafford.

Harry Ward said...

@HazzW (twitter.com/HazzW)